Seasonal worker tied up, coworkers face termination

Several Nassau County Parks Department workers could lose their jobs because of a prank that didn't go as planned.

They tied up one of their coworkers, a friend, with duct tape.

They thought it was quite funny, but their bosses did not.

Is the county overreacting?

"I think that's ridiculous, especially if one of them is a 22-year veteran of the parks, it's absolutely ridiculous!" said Karen Blake, a bather.

People we spoke with said it's absurd.

But three maintenance workers at Nassau County's Wantagh Park are facing termination for what was by all accounts a prank.

They admitted using duct tape to wrap one of the park's seasonal employees to a pole alongside the pool. A short video was later posted on social media.

But the alleged victim isn't pressing charges and is the brother in-law of one of the men who tied him up.

Officials insist that none of that matters, because the men pulled their prank on county time.

Exactly 11 minutes before the end of their shift.

"It's on county time, and the people of the county and the taxpayers deserve to have employees working, not fooling around, and doing what they should be doing, they should be doing their job, what they are paid to do," said Rob Walker, Deputy Nassau County Executive.

The union president agrees to a point saying, "No excuses, they should have been working, but we don't believe horseplay of this kind rises to the level of termination. Everybody involved said it was a prank."

Bathers Eyewitness News spoke with said, "enough already!"

"I think it was silly, let it go," Blake said.

"They want to have a little fun at the end of the day, why not? Why not?" said Steve Campiglia, a bather.

Right now, the workers are suspended without pay, and expected to be fired.